i8. Note on the Ta'rlkh Salatln Afaghinah 



By H. Beveridge, I.C.S. {Retired). 



Ahmad Yadgar's history of the Afghan Kings of Delhi and 

 Agra has been described by Elliot and Dowson at the beginning 

 of vol. V of their History of India. There is a modern and 

 undated copy of the work in the Library of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, MS. No. 137, and this appears to be the only one in 

 existence. j 



In his preface, Ahmed Yadgar says he wrote his book at 

 the suggestion of a king whom he calls Badshah 'Alampanah 

 Abu'l-Muzaffar Daud Shah. This has been taken to mean the 

 young and dissipated son of Sulaiman Karrani of Patna, and 

 the last of the Af gh an princes of Bengal. He was defeated 

 and put to death in July, 1576. But the titles are rather 

 grandiose for a prince who had so short and inglorious a reign. 

 The magnificent titles might not be out of place if Ahmad 

 Yadgar wrote as a bigoted partizan of the Afghans, but this is 

 not the case, for his sympathies seem to be with Babur and his 

 descendants. And this would be natural, for his father was in 

 the service of Humayun 's brother Mirza 'Askarl. He tells 

 us that he wrote his book because the histories of Minhaj ad-din 

 JurjanI and Ziya-i-Barn! were discussed at an interview he had 

 with the king, and that the latter remarked to him that no one 



1 The Imperial Library (Bohar collection), however, possesses a 

 complete copy of the work. The Imperial Library copy (MS. 3887) com- 

 prises 198 folios and is written in ordinary ta'liq by one 'Abd al- 

 Rahman. It is free from the errors of spelling I have noticed in the 

 Asiatic Society's copy and is a better copy than that in our possession. 



Like our copy it begins thus : — 



The concluding words are :— 



- ^jj^U f*» j\ J'bli ^ j\ j~ *£■*!**! afy. jt&»* *Jjfo* <^±> 



* i^T^V^ ^** LSI** ^^l - &*• (A+> 



Spaces for headings and insertion of introductory words like .**• 

 ( verse ), oj^ ( story )> etc - are left blank throughout. 



The passage containing the raison d'etre of the work runs thus : 



I feel no doubt that the word humayun ^^Ua in the above passage is 



an adjective meaning * auspicious/ etc., and cannot mean, as suggested 

 by a distinguished Orientalist, the Emperor Humayun.— Philological Secre- 

 tory. 



